For my 1st Chicago hot spot feature, I’m starting with Alinea! It’s the 1st place I’ve been to since starting this blog that I’ve been to, that’s so memorable, I have to write about it.
First, some disclaimers; 1. I’m not a foodie 2. I love good homemade meals and 3. I never thought I’d come to this restaurant, and have turned down going in the past. The opportunity to dine here came about as a family outing, in which we are celebrating several things with my husband’s brothers and wives. They all love, no…LOVE gastronomy and culinary detail excellence. I am always the happy receiver of their phenomenal cooking. Literally, all 3 brothers, my husband and his two brothers are very gifted in the kitchen and getting together with them is always a happy tummy occasion. So, I’ll continue with what you actually want to know.
Should you go if you can? Yes. Would I go again. Maybe. I loved being involved in the celebration of every dish, the attention to detail, the service, taking 4 hours to literally enjoy the company and the food without distractions. However, maybe it’s just a once in a lifetime thing!
My 1st impression of the night was citrus. The orange smell was really prevalent and I wasn’t sure why until we walked in “the Gallery” and all the tables had about 2 pounds of oranges draped all over the center piece. According to our server, the center piece changes frequently. Then we went into the first room on the 1st floor and there were a lot of drapes and minimalist decor. From what I understood, in that room everyone is dining at the same speed no matter how fast you’re personally going. It’s more communal in that sense. The 2nd floor, the room we happened to be in was the “Salon”. We were told that we’d be served according to our speed of eating and that our 1st and last courses would be a little different than the downstairs room. We had 6 people in our party (the max allowed), and that was on the larger size according to them, so it’s not great for big groups unless you want to pay more. We were the first to arrive so we sat down and waited for the two other couples in a very cozy, comfortable table in a room that was drenched in literally 50 shades of grey. It was quite soothing, and a blank canvas for the star of the evening; the food! I thought we would have 16-18 courses, but only saw 11 on the menu. I detected 2 missing so far, and not sure what happened to the other 4 but that was ok!
The server, Reskei (pronounced Risky), was awesome as expected and asked us if we had restrictions, etc. After we got through that the meal began without further ado. The sommelier, Kevin was also amazing because he wasn’t pretentious, just very knowledgeable, with a dry sense of humor and clearly loves what he does. These were the courses:
My favorite things were;
-The CRUNCH ROUILLE, NORI, PAPER LANGOUSTINE, BOUILLABAISSE, OLIVE OIL
-Going into the kitchen for an off the menu course that involved a cocktail and sponge cake.
-My favorite wines were the Paul Pernot, “Puligny-Montrachet”from Burgundy 2015, an un-oaked Chard and an Albarino from Spain (2016) called Eladio Pineiro, “Envidiacochina”, this one tasted like the ocean and was unreal.
-Asking for more of wine than was allotted in pairing and getting it.
– The Alinea Chef’s Grant Achatz’s story. It’s just unbelievable and reason to go in of itself. As an entrepreneur and artist, his story gave me goose bumps and made me pause and think about purpose and gratitude. If you are not familiar, he suffered from oral cancer 2 years after opening his famous restaurant and he wasn’t sure if he was going to ever taste anything again, let alone live. There are so many great articles about him including this one. However, I highly recommend you see the documentary, Chef’s Table.
My husband’s take of the evening:
The operations: impeccable. The staff, kitchen, timing of food and wine pairings were flawless.
The space: contemporary but very comfortable.
The dishes: Very creative, coolness level high. Presentation and context also very high.
The ambiance: Good, but was missing music. Perhaps a live string quartet or Sonos system would have made the space seem less sterile.
The fullness factor; Could’ve squeezed in a cheese steak sandwich from Tony’s.
I don’t know what Tony’s is, BTW. 🙂
What I wore:
I wanted a dress I could comfortably sit in for 4 hours and have my stomach keep expanding. I decided on an asymmetrical velvet slip dress that was really spacious and dressy on top. I was happy it was a dark green color so that I could afford to accidentally drop bites, because I do that all the time! I blame it on the kids but it’s actually all my fault. I wore these really cute, high uncomfortable shoes from Badgley Mischka that were perfect to sit in most of the night and wore a velvet blazer on top in case I got cold!
How to get tickets (they don’t have reservations), here. Price ranges from $285- $345 pp and wine and non-alcoholic pairings are available. We did the wine pairing, and wouldn’t recommend any other way!
I really loved the evening and will remember it for the rest of my life. Something to keep in mind is who you go with! I think that part of what made it so great was that everyone else was very passionate about food, presentation and well versed in Iron Chef. If you go with other people like me that would be happy with a couple of sushi rolls then it might not be as fun!
What other restaurants have made an impact on you? Do you love long coursed meals or one big hearty dish? XO Z
